Breathe : Of Flowers and Sand
by Truth-of-a-Thousand-Lies
Summary: Ino and a team of 7 medics are sent to find survivors. By the Gedo statue she finds the Kage - priority healing - talking to his former tailed beast. Babbling, trying to be helpful, Ino gets herself caught up in something she may not be able to handle. And the whole way through, Ino has to remind herself to breathe.
1. Epilogue: Of War and Reasons

A/N : After many years, I have come back to write one last fic. Or maybe more I have ideas, but Gaara Ino has always been my favorite couple, and I truly believe that they should've ended up together. The whole Ino/Sai thing doesn't sit with me.

DO NOT read this fanfic if you are NOT caught up with Naruto – as in the ending of the war. I will start from the ending then proceed to change it as it fits the fanfic. So MAJOR spoiler alert for those who have not arrived to that stage of the anime/manga. Thank you.

Summary: Ino and seven other medics were assigned the northwest corner of the major battle field. Collect the injured and bring them in for surgery. And 2 years later, she finds herself in an odd position.

XXXX

Prologue

Shizune stood under the neon lighting that swayed as people walked in and out of medic tent 13. Around 200 medics alone were in that tent, standing next to each other like sardines. Shizune climbed onto a desk to be visible and proceeded to give instructions.

"We have officially received word. The war is over. Naruto, Gaara, Sasuke, Kakashi, .." Ino zoned out as the names were being listed.

She envied Sakura in this war in the sense that Sakura was only a medic, and fought only a few times on the front line before being pulled back. After her father's death, Ino had to… literally feel people die as the Ultimate Mind Telepathy technique lost one chakra signal after another. From death in her head to death on the medic stretchers, Ino was constantly sick to her stomach. Not to mention it takes a lot out of a person to … well do all that. She didn't have the chakra reserves for half of what she did, and if it wasn't for Tsunade's slugs, she'd been dead from the start.

Ino's head snapped to attention at the sound of her name.

"Ino, Kira, Risa, Enna, Hanabi, Kuro, Ketsuki, Hikaru, I would like you 8 to scour sector 5." Pointing to a map it was the section automatically west of the Gedo statue. "Your biggest priority is to bring back those who are still breathing. When rescue is completed, you will return for the fallen so they can have a proper burial in their respective villages."

The eight nodded.

"You 8 are dismissed, and Ino," the girl turned on her heels to look at Shizune, who very pointedly said, "report."

A curt nod, and Ino vanished to catch up with her team.

She stood atop a rock that she assumed Naruto or Madara or Kaguya, or well anyone fighting really was able to dismantle from the mountain, and stared out at the sea of dead people. She needed a moment to readjust. She personally felt practically everyone on the battlefield in front of her, die. Hand symbols, Mind Trace Search. 20 paces north, 30 paces east, and each time she gave a location, one member vanished. She remained, and continued to scan the area.

One chakra signal was familiar, but in heightened despair, surrounded by what could only be bijou chakra, and another faint chakra signature. Ino headed there.

 _Gaara_ , she thought.

She initially concealed her chakra signature just to see what was happening, but to her surprise, instead of a battle, Shukaku was sitting and talking to Gaara, who seemed to be crying.

"I'm sorry Gaara that it had to end this way, and after all the feats you performed during the war, I would also like to apologize for what I've done to you while you were my jinchuuriki. All I can offer is my strength as is. I've saved some of your mother's chakra in your sand but you know that by now don't you?"

Gaara, sobbing, nodded, crying into his gourd.

"Kaa-san."

Wounded, Ino could tell from a distance, and probably incredibly wounded, too. He no longer had fast healing powers due to Shukaku sitting next to him instead of being inside of him. If she didn't heal now, she'd be liable for the Kazekage's death. And another war is not what they needed, or any of them could afford.

"Kazekage-sama," she approached quietly, "Would it be alright if I healed you?"

He looked up at her and suddenly returned to a very stoic face, eyes cold as ice. He obviously hated showing any sign that he actually HAD emotions to anyone. There was that one incident while battling his father, but that could be ignored. However, the evidence could not, as the last tear continued to trickle down his cheek. Instinctively, as she had done many times with Shika and Chouji when they were kids, with her mother and father, Sakura and practically everyone else she knew, she wiped the tear.

As if she touched fire, she remembered that she was in fact speaking to the Kazekage and took a step back, apologizing.

"Shukaku-sama," she bowed, "Thank you for your service in this war."

Shukaku seemed to be taken aback, but thanked the mortal human for the acknowledgement.

"Gaara," his rough, echoing voice breaking rock, "She seems nice."

Ino got on one knee and started to heal visible wounds on the Kage, who made no comment or attempt to stop her.

"Shukaku-sama, I overheard you saying that you were sorry. I just thought that since you were forcefully ripped out, if Gaara is okay with it, you can be resealed. From what I understood from Naruto, if his mom's chakra is bound to you, his mom's presence in the sand will increase tenfold, yeah?"

"Yes."

Now they waited for Gaara to respond.

"Shukaku, I have said it before. I can finally stay up with you all night."

Laughter resonated across the battlefield.

"I'll let you sleep this time, Gaara."

"Child, what is your name," he turned to Ino, demon eyes boring into her soul.

"Yamanaka Ino."

"A medic, and a Yamanaka, how would you like to do the honor of resealing, as it was your bright idea."

"Oh no no sorry, I couldn't. I'm not versed in sealing jutsu's and I could fuck something up. Plus, since I'm a Yamanaka, I'd have to know my patient intimately to be able to induce the jutsu properly and effectively."

She hurriedly continued her ramble as the monster cocked his head.

"Plus, I won't be a medic anymore after all of this is over, so I really .. I won't be in a position to do such a thing. From Gaara's current state and from what we've seen resealing do to Naruto, it would be at least another 2 years before he's back in full form, and I wouldn't want the Kage weakened by a stupid idea from a medic."

"Not a stupid idea, and since it would take that long, it gives you time to hone your skills, ne?" Shukaku inquired. The other tailed beats beasts dispersed back to wherever they lived prior to being captured by humans, like Shukaku who used to live in the desert. All except Kurama who was now, whole, sealed within Naruto.

With this, Ino couldn't argue.

"Demo…" She rubbed the back of her head, and gave a sheepish smile, now regretting she ever opened her mouth.

"Ino-san, as a tailed beast who could also be the reason you die," the death threat was only a matter of time with the particular tailed beast who never seemed to be in a good mood, "I ask of you personally to do the sealing. With help of course."

"Hai!" She acknowledged, and then, apparently, promised as well.

She turned back to healing the biggest wounds of the Kazekage, who the whole time stared at a small spot between his legs. After healing, Ino stood up and dusted her mesh knee accessories, and then proceeded to alert the heads of nations, and anyone else this thing could possibly concern.

" _Kazekage and Shukaku were found by the Gedo statue on the border of sector five and three. Since they fell within my jurisdiction, I felt it a priority to heal the Kage. Long story short, I healed the Kage, but Shukaku requested personally of me to reseal him into Gaara two years from now. Shukaku in the meantime will be in the sand dunes of the Wind Nation, lying in wait."_

No response, then.

" _That is EXCELLENT NEWS! I won't be the only jinchuuriki anymore. From this point on, I think we'll be quite the female catch."_

" _That is EXCELLENT NEWS! I won't be the only jinchuuriki anymore. From this point on, I think we'll be quite the female catch."_

" _You're awfully chipper for someone who was mortally wounded,"_ resounded Tsunade's voice, " _Naruto, stay out of this. But yes, he is right, that might be for the best. Gaara is accustomed to Shukaku, and this could strengthen his position as Kage further."_

" _Mizukage here! No objections, may we attend if there is a celebratory party after? Shukaku and the other tailed beasts helped a lot during this war, and we are in debt to them after all."_

" _Tsuchikage, I'm too old to even care anymore. When I appoint a new Tsuchikage, I'll be sure to tell him to agree to this. Unless all the good candidates DIED. Ughhhh my back hurts!"_

" _Raikage – and hn."_

" _That's not a response, sir."_ Ino almost giggled, but attempted to remain calm and professional.

" _Fine. As long as he's kept under control."_

" **I've ALWAYS been under control."** The tailed beast was in on this, too.

Apparently.

Affirmed and reported, Ino stood up from Gaara and gave him her hand. He accepted and hauled himself up.

Shukaku nodded to them a goodbye and a see you in 2 years off handed remark, then turned into sand and was gone.

Ino, coughing up sand, attempted to ask the Kage where he needed to go, and if he required further assistance, but he, too, was gone in the sandstorm.

Without further ado, and not questioning why the Kage didn't bother with a thank you, Ino proceeded to mentally kick herself for ever opening her stupid big helpful mouth, and went about her duties.

She did have two years to figure this out. Maybe Shukaku would forget. Or Gaara would die, Kami-forbid, or she would, that was more likely, and she wouldn't have to deal with this anymore.

Staring out at the sea of corpses and ruined landscape, Ino jumped off searching for wounded survivors.

Amidst death, signs of life were welcome.

\- A few months later –

Ino stared at herself in the mirror and wasn't comfortable. She looked 16, she was 16, but she didn't feel 16. She felt… old, traumatized, tainted, matured, and all in all not like she was 16. Maybe it was the ponytail. Maybe it was the short skirt. It wasn't the mesh and purple, but maybe it was everything else. She raised her hand and pulled her pony tail off, letting her hair fall down loosely around her bum.

Poofy. Her hair was poofy at the top. The way hair generally is when kept in a tight pony tail for centuries, or what she felt was that long. Running her hands through her hair she found her scalp actually hurt, and maybe, if nothing else, leaving her hair down for a few years would do her scalp some good. Hours of brushing later, and a hairclip or two, Ino liked how it accentuated her features, cast shadows on her cheekbones that made them more pronounced, mature. She then realized in a few years, they actually would look like that.

As for the outfit, time to go shopping. She lived alone now. Her mother couldn't bear to look at her recalling how much she reminded her of her dad, so the agreed to once a month visits. Ino, as a good daughter, still took a lot of the shifts in the flower shop when she could. She grabbed the keys from a small woven wooden basket on her kitchen counter, grabbed her purse, and left into blissful winter sunlight.

Konoha was cold and Ino didn't have a mission. A light blue sweater, dark blue jeans, and a black woolen coat would suffice. Au contraire, Ino didn't only own purple. It was only her ninja outfit that was purple, and it was her favorite color. But Ino was still a girl, and fashion did not only contain purple stuff.

She pulled a black woven hat over her head, and headed towards Konoha's makeshift shopping sector. Konoha was reviving from the war, but it hadn't gotten quite there yet.

Shop here, shop there, Ino found fishnet tights, black skinny ninja edition shorts, shin protecting ninja sandals – black, and a variation of her old top, except this time, it had an off-white trim beneath the breasts, and it was a button up top, vs a pull on with buttons for show. After a moment of inspection, she noticed the slightly raised collar was the same color as the trim.

Searching around, she found a purple skirt that fell all the way to mid-calf, and buttoned at the front. Wind blowing would send it flying around her as there was quite a lot of material, for movement. This was a ninja store after all. Picking the items up, she proceeded to the changing room.

A tear rolled down her cheek as she looked at herself. Her waist visible as always, but something about this was more mature, more womanly, and definitely, although still hot, gave off the impression that she as a whole changed.

Sort of.

Deep down Ino was still loud and rambunctious, and flirty and insanely obsessed with her wait and looking good. She was still hard headed and looking for true love, and taking shit from no one.

Hard to act like your true self when your father died a few months ago.

Shikamaru was no longer lazy, that's how far the change went when the Headquarters was bombed, and news of it was released, via Ino.

She gulped. How odd, I had to tell the world my father was dead, my best friend's father, was dead.

Everyone is dead.

She collapsed and cried until she passed out.

A soft hand on her shoulder woke her up and she a speckle of pink hair altered her to Sakura.

"Sakura-chan…" she hadn't seen her since the war.

"Ino, come on, let's go grab a drink." She pulled her old best friend and rival up, and before exiting, realized Ino wasn't wearing her usual outfit.

"That new?"

"Oh yeah, shit," Ino wiped her nose, "I forgot to pay for this."

Ino returned, and having not bothered to redress, threw on her black coat. It would suffice until they reached the bar.

"How are you holding up, Ino?"

The blonde just looked at her, and reflected the question.

They spoke of simple stuff. Their new hairdos, and tried to break tension with boys. The topic always circled back to the war, though.

Sakura broke crying over her beer, recalling how she had to physically pump Naruto's heart to keep him alive.

Ino cried recalling all the people she physically felt die, her father, and all the relationships that dimmed as the old Konoha genins tried to cope with the after effects of the war.

After a nice sob session, Ino laughed.

"We should, honestly find something to occupy us. A new purpose, a new direction, a new goal."

Sakura twirled her glass, the last ounces of beer following.

"You have choices, Ino," Sakura was mesmerized by the beer swirling in her cup, "An interrogator, head of this division, that division, a psychologist, mind medicine, torture, medicine in general, you could even be a model – me, I'm just really strong, with excellent chakra control, and have always been trained to be a medic. What NEW purpose could I come up with, except work at the hospital, become the best doctor."

"Surpass Tsunade?" Ino offered.

"Hm, she'd kill me." Sakura laughed, sadness lacing her voice, with an abundance of matter-of-factness. The woman really would stoop to that level if she thought her underling was actually going to be better than her.

Ino placed her hand over Sakura's, "We'll figure it out," she reassured her.

Sakura, finally peeling her eyes off of the beer, downed it, and smiled at Ino. Hope.

Ino scrunched her face up. Sakura's face was changing from that of a lost, sad excellent ninja to that of a shocked, terrified school girl who was just told she had been expelled for something she didn't do.

"Sakura, what's wrong, what did you remember?"

"You, Gaara! You should be training for that!"

Something broke inside Ino's head and heart. Oh right, she forgot. She had to seal a monster inside of a dead thing. With feelings when no one is looking, apparently, but still for the most part, a dead thing.

Sakura, catching her inner turmoil over Gaara, giggled, "Well, you should've seen that boy show emotion when Naruto was in question. I've never seen someone more determined, and emotional and helpful, and willing to fight. He was honestly scared and not afraid to show it. Maybe it's just around you. He doesn't know you after all, and he knows me, Naruto, Kakashi, and the rest that were on that front line, pretty damn well. Madara and Obito don't count."

Another round of beers was ordered.

"That's not the problem Saku-chan."

Sakura raised an eyebrow in question.

"I need to intimately know him to be able to seal Shukaku within him. Unlike the Hyuuga I can't see every chakra point. Unlike everyone else we know, I don't have an insane chakra reserve on a whim. I'm a Yamanaka. To seal, I need to know the mind to understand the body, and how it works, for the seal to be on par with that of Minato and Kurama/Naruto."

Sakura giggled and took a swig of her beer.

"Intimate time with Gaara is needed."

Ino gulped, "I just hope he let's me search his brain and that's where it stops and ends. He doesn't seem to like me."

"When will you see him again?" The mood was suddenly lighter as the girl's got a little more drunk and Sakura now sprawled onto the booth couch like an evil queen, sneered in good humor at her best friend.

"Three months before the sealing. The council has allowed us that much time to get to know each other. One month and two weeks will be in Suna, the other half in Konoha." Ino had shrunk in on herself.

Sakura leaned dramatically over the table, "Alone time with the Kazekage, ouuuu." She winked.

Ino almost spilled beer into her face, but decided throwing a napkin at her would be less disastrous in this cold Konoha winter.

"It's just a promise – business, Sakura." Ino reassured Sakura, but mainly, was reassuring herself.

XXXXX

A/N : And there you have it, Prologue. I hope you like it.

I wanted to stray away from the "marriage" and "forced marriage" and Ino getting shipped off, and broken hearts.

Ino did serve partially as a medic. Ino is medically trained and would've logically been on that mission.

After the fallout Shukaku and Gaara had when Shukaku was being pulled into the Gedo statue, Shukaku's feelings aren't far out. Gaara, I hope, isn't too OOC.

Ino was always the helpful, bright, blabbing bimbo that she is. She would spurt out a good idea and get herself caught up in the mess.

This gives Ino and Gaara a legitimate reason to spend time together, and romance can bloom.

I hope you enjoyed it, Review please and let me know if you want me to continue.

XxTruth-of-a-Thousand-LiesxX


	2. Chapter 1: Of Books, News, and Festivals

Thank you for the review(s). It means a lot that this concept is liked, and that another chapter is in order.

I have listed titles of books, a synopsis, and the introduction paragraph of A Handmaid's Tale. All rights reserved to the editors of Sparknotes, Margaret Atwood, and so on. I have a small plan for those books through the story, so bear with me.

Enjoy :3

-x-

2 Years Later

It was hot. Hot didn't mean a beautiful summer day. Hot meant blistering. Horrible. Hell. Ino had regretted everything about her decision to step outside of her house that morning and bit the urge to bite her lip and punch a bitch, as she so often phrased it.

She licked her wisdom teeth and made weird, annoyed noises with her mouth, as she forgot why the hell she was out IN hell to begin with.

Konoha was back to its annoying bustling self. Everything was back to its annoying bustling self. She hated everything about today.

To be fair, she should be taking her hat off to all the civilians and ninja whose efforts went into relentlessly rebuilding Konoha. Reconstruction had taken place during the war as all the civilians who remained unaffiliated went ahead trying to do something constructive.

The wind picked up and slapped Ino in the face with more humid hotness, leaving her short of breath.

"No, why be a fresh breeze when you can just be steam?" she muttered under her breath in an angry retort to the wind. Said hell also brought her back into why she particularly hated her life today - the reason she had to leave her nice cool apartment during the biggest hot wave of the decade.

 _Gaara._

 _I. ahem. Oh lord, am I angry. So angry I can't even think. How the hell can you piss someone off this much?! Like seriously GOD FORBID something has to take place you know in Sept, or October or hell the dead of WINTER would've sufficed better than this._

Today was the day Ino had to go off and meet the Kazekage again after their brief interaction by the Gedo statue two years ago. Ino, for that stupid effort that she stupidly blabbed her mouth off for, had been stuck for the past two years training relentlessly. Chakra control, mind control, mind techniques, making new techniques, medicine, sealing jutsus, practically EVERYTHING in the ninja world except kekkai genkais, though with her pace, she was legitimately certain that she could've learned them as well.

She strutted towards the Hokage building, dehydrating exponentially with every step.

 _Ugh.._ she rolled her eyes, shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand she was sure had second degree burns by now.

 _No one else is out and about, you know, LIKE EVERY OTHER NORMAL GODDAMN HUMAN._

Reaching the Hokage building she opened the front doors with a kick, ignoring the two guards next to her. Muttering a hello, she stormed into the building, and for a moment stopped to revel in the cool air from within.

She plastered herself to the wall and used it as a massive ice cube, releasing small moans of pleasure each time a burnt piece of exposed skin would touch it. Recollecting herself and her thoughts, Ino cleared her throat.

 _Must not kill Gaara, or Kakashi. Must remain polite, calm, collected, professional. Must also not dehydrate._ She took the first right to the female bathroom without even pausing for consideration.

Re-emerging hydrated, she mentally kicked herself into high spirits.

 _Must not murder anyone. Would be too troublesome to bury someone in this heat._

She lifted the long blonde locks off of her back and ran a wet hand across the back of her neck, and gave another small moan of pleasure as she slowly tried stretching it out. She pulled her purple top down a bit, fixed her skirt, and mentally berated herself for wearing her ninja shoes versus something normal like sandals. Metal plates against your shins was HOT. Before reaching the office, Ino caught a glimpse of her appearance in black glass barely reflecting her.

And then it hit, 3 meters from the office, what was actually happening - what actually happened.

She let her fingers slowly trace her cheek and jaw bone noting how right she was two years ago - her facial structure grew exactly as she predicted. Her hair, silky and long, was a more platinum blonde, almost white than ever before, and reached down to her mid-calf, longer than she ever had it. Her eyes angular yet still round, giving her facial features a more adult, and more mature, more beautiful look.

But her eyes. Dead. The azure pools were no longer azure, or cerulean, or shimmering, or anything stupid they got dubbed while she was younger. They were just, blue. A dead, normal, paint blue. A pang of pain scorched through her body, but she forced herself to lift a lock of her hair out of her eyes, throw it over her shoulder, and proceed.

With a deep breath, no longer angry, complaining, dehydrated, sarcastic, or suffering from second degree burns, Ino returned to her usual self, professional, polite, and always just a little tense and scared.

She turned the handle and entered.

xXx

"Hokage-sama," Ino said in a soft but clear and distinct voice, "My presence was requested?"

"Ino, welcome. How've you been?"

"Hot." Brutally honest, always been, always will be. She strained a smile to show her discontent and unintentionally raised an eyebrow at the sun outside.

Kakashi laughed heartily beneath his mask and put his Icha Icha Paradise down.

"I'm assuming you know why you're here?" He grabbed a stack of papers and attempted to look busy.

"Reading Icha Icha during work hours? How very Hokage of you, sensei." She smirked and laughed.

Kakashi personally spent a lot of the last two years teaching her sealing techniques, mainly the same one used on Naruto during the war that sealed dark Kurama and then later the original half back into Naruto. Like with Tsunade, after a while, honorifics, politeness was reserved for nothing really, unless it was a serious life or death situation, and or someone from some council was present.

Like the Kazekage. Who Ino didn't notice, and Kakashi didn't feel the need to tell her about. Who was behind her - sulking - in a dark corner of the office.

Sulking - or simply standing where both correct. Ino, knowing very little of the man except he looked like a poster boy for Goth bands, stuck with the former verb.

Ino visibly tensed but, having not been alerted to his presence, made no attempt to acknowledge him. She had to wait for formal introduction.

 _I met the kid. I grew up with him practically. Two chunnin exams in a row. Literally fought on the same battlefield - healed his wounds, and I have to wait for formal introduction. This is SUCH bull._

"Every excuse to skip work." The white haired man smiled.

"Do we ever get to have a hard working Kage?" Ino retorted playfully.

"Those days ended with Tsunade. Your 7th Hokage is Naruto, so unless Naruto appoints the 8th to be someone of seriousness and hard work ethics, nope." Kakashi leaned back in his chair.

"Naruto's making Hokage, when?" Ino was honestly curious, happy that her contemporary, and a man she not only thought of as a hero, but also one of her closest friends, would soon be given the duty of assigning missions and paying her. Priceless.

"When they finally get tired of my work ethic – or lack thereof." Kakashi winked.

"Speaking of which, Ino," he straightened up in his chair, and leaned forward onto the table, "You're here because," finger raised to point at Gaara, "Naruto's best friend has a bone to pick with you."

Gaara finally emerged from the darkness, and stood by the window looking out.

"You promised."

Ino's eyes watched him initially with curiosity, then with a look of "Okay, you're still insane." As he continued to speak, Ino's facial expression just showed her thoughts blatantly enough to get the Hokage to look away from Icha Icha and fail at containing laughter.

 _No hello. Again. Cool, man, cool._

"Yes sir."

"Are you still going through with your promise?"

 _Don't turn to – WHAT, no I just spent the last two years learning SEALING jutsus for … strategic sheep purposes._

"Yes, sir." She repeated again.

"I understand from Hokage-sama that you require to get to know me … intimately for this to work, since you're a Yamanaka."

"Hai." Ino began tapping her leg lightly on the floor, impatient with the conversation.

He turned to face her, his hands clasped behind his back, his posture rigid straight.

 _Hello, nice to finally see your face. I'm glad you suddenly found yourself worthy of showing it to me._

Ino was beginning to already regret ever opening her big mouth. More so now than she had every day for the past two years of hard, rigorous training.

 _All for a man who can't even fucking ease up._

"I suggest we begin immediately, then. You have been graced with my continuous presence for three months. I, and the council of Suna, hope this is enough time for you?"

 _More than enough. Your monotone is already putting me to sleep. How the hell am I supposed to keep up with you when I can't even listen to you without wanting to fall asleep or kill you in your sleep? If you even sleep._

"Yes sir."

A curt nod followed by a dismissing, "Meet me outside my quarters in two hours."

"Hai." She turned to face Kakashi, who was so engrossed into his book he just gave her a wave of the hand indicating he, too, had nothing further to say.

Ino fought the urge to roll her eyes, discontent rising inside of her.

 _Three months. And no more. I go back to life. At least it's PAID leave from all my other duties._

In a puff of smoke Ino vanished.

She found herself on a rooftop and then headed for the Hokage Faces, and sat on Tsunade's poorly carved out head. She brought her knees close to her chest, hugging them. Staring out over Konoha, she tried to remember how she remained sane.

" _Fight, Ino, Fight!"_

" _Ino, increase your chakra reserves!"_

" _Ino, hit higher."_

" _Hit harder."_

" _Hit faster!"_

" _More precise."_

" _More chakra"_

" _More precision!"_

" _Channel more chakra."_

" _FOCUS INO."_

The voices of Maito Guy, Kakashi, Tsunade, Shizune, Ibiki floated through her head.

" _Remember why you're doing this."_

 _The entrance was dark, the hallway long and ominous. Old installation lights flickered in and out of life as they lit a poorly laid concrete wall and ceiling and stairs that led to hell itself. At the bottom, another hallway, but this time, no longer decending, and had 2 hallways branching off to the left and right, and at the far end, large wooden doors. Ibiki had taken her down with the intent of fulfilling a promise to her father. If her were to die before Ino could be taught absolutely everything about the Yamanaka Clan and their bloodline, kekkai genkai, and gain mastery of all their jutsus, basic, chuunin, jounin, anbu, and secret in level of skill, then Ibiki would show her and help her train as much as he could. So here they were, in a secret part of Konoha Ino didn't know existed, underground._

 _Ino recalled that something like this was where the Uchiha also had their secret stash of trump card jutsus and family history secrets. Hinata had also mentioned something along those lines. Did everyone whose family had a kekkai genkai have these secret underground passageways?_

 _They first went left. Months later, they went right. A year later they passed through the big gloomy doors._

Jutsu after jutsu, chakra reserve training, taijutsu training, focus training, chakra control, sealing techniques, forbidden techniques, and medical training flurried through her mind.

" _Ino, no, you can't quit."_

" _Ino you need to stop passing out."_

" _Ino you can do this!"_

" _Interrogate. Find, control, manipulate."_

And here she was, two years later, a product of relentless torture, never ending training and whole lot of no sleep. It held her up, it helped her cope, and it gave her reason. It also made her the best interrogator in all of the Elemental Nations, it made her dangerous, it made her an excellent medical ninja, a strong member of the Konoha ANBU, and a ferocious power to be dealt with, all before the age of 18.

And still, she was late. She was late to the game. Naruto had all his shit under control at 16. Sasuke, too.

Sighing heavily, she leaned back onto her hands and yelped as the rock burned.

 _Fuck, I forgot it was hot._ Ino froze at her own stupidity. _Ah duh it's hot, the air could fry an egg let alone a rock that's been.. ugh._ Even her train of thought was so stupid it didn't deserve to be finished.

Barking. Ino twisted her shoulder to check, and meters above her brown messy hair with red fang marks shining as the light reflected off his canine white teeth.

"Kiba?" She lifted a hand to shield her eyes and get a better look. "Kiba!" exclaiming, she jumped to her feet. He walked off the cliff and landed softly next to her.

"Ino-chaann!" An arm wrapped around her, "Missed yah! What've you been up to?"

Ino removed his hand, groaning, "WAY too hot for hugs, but I MISSED you too!" she cooed, "Not much, just a meeting today, and that's it. Thinking about getting lunch then doing some training. What about you?"

"Just finished training with Akamaru! Hey, tonight the old genins are getting together in honor of Neji. After all, there is a festival tonight, so around 6 pm we wanna get dinner and stuff and raise a toast to him, then go out and celebrate his favorite festival for him."

"The Rinne Festival, right?" Ino scanned Konoha and then noticed what she hadn't that morning, or the entire time she sat there on the cliff alone – Konoha was slowly getting ready, stands setting up, people pulling banners up, some guy yelling about fireworks and if they arrived.

"You forgot?"

"That there was a festival today, yeah." Ino sniffled out of habit.

"HOW?"

"A lot of my mind, Kiba-kun. Just a lot on my mind."

Kiba noticed the mysterious aura of her voice and decided not to prod what was on her mind. Instead, he jokingly pulled on her hair pulling her head back.

"Well you know we're here for you." Ino turned around to face him and smiled a thank

Kiba grinned, and jumped to his feet.

"Gonna go shower and get ready. See you at 7 tonight?" He asked hopefully. She squinted her eyes and nodded, "I promise."

Giggling, Kiba jumped back up onto the cliff edge and ran off with Akamaru. Once again, Ino was left alone to ponder her thoughts. It was a little past noon, she gathered from the sun's position which meant that she had a whole lot of time to do nothing. No, not true. She had to meet the Kazekage in a little over an hour. What to do for an hour?

 _Maybe a walk?_

Ino got up and jumped back up onto the cliff and strode into the nearby clearing heading for the famed Konoha forests.

 _Hm, maybe Kakashi has a point with the whole book thing._

Not that she had one with her. She decided to go buy a book or two, and promptly headed to exit the forest. To save up on time she had to spend at the Konoha library, she jumped into the trees and proceeded to jump from branch to branch, and before she knew it, she was falling into the crater caused by Pein into which Konoha had rebuilt itself, and onto the nearest rooftop. She landed softly in front of the book shop and entered.

"Hello," greeted the librarian's assistant, a short girl with shoulder length brown hair, tied up into a loose ponytail, "How may I help you?" She readjusted her glasses, round and thin, smiling kindly.

"Uhm… I'm looking for a good book. I don't care what genre, just, a good book." Ino realized she actually had no idea what she was looking for and decided to trust the book choices the librarian gave her.

"We have had a new shipment of books come in recently. Under the pseudonym of Japan, the Elemental Nations were able to form contact with people that live far across the ocean. Apparently, on the far West edge of the Elemental Nations, an actual place called Japan exists. We checked their maps, and they don't seem to know we exist. We go there," the girl paused to dodge a table and head into the musty room lined with wooden bookshelves and overflowing with books," and we order a bunch of books that their world writes. An investigation has gone in to why they don't know we exist and vice versa, but if contact has been made, a sort of trade has started, too. We buy a bunch of books from their world and bring them back. It's so interesting to think only a thick forest separated us for centuries." The girl giggled.

Ino raised both eyebrows in awe, but felt no internal inspiration to actually voice it, because in the end, all she wanted was a good book, and not a geography lesson. To be fair, it was interesting. Ino marked research into that as something to do when she was incredibly bored. Nodding she understood, she was hoping the woman would finally come to samples of their work.

"American Psycho, Pride and Prejudice, Of Mice and Men, As I Lay Dying, Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment are all excellent books. Moby Dick, In a Free State, The Sound and the Fury, Breakfast at Tiffany's…"

Ino noticed the way she said the last title was more of in nostalgia and actual love, as if it's the best thing she's ever read and the coolest thing she ever would – almost like a must read novel, if you're into that genre – _what's a word for that…_

"Now that's a classic!"

 _Yes! Classic. I wonder if any of the others are classics._

The girl was a Yamanaka – or had one on her.

"Well, to be fair, they're all classics."

 _She's a goddamn mind reader._

"It's just depends on the genre they're written in. All these books are literary works of art, all holding their own place in the hall of fame of literature. It's just that Breakfast at Tiffany's… it's special in it's own sort of way every generation knows but can't actually define."

 _Why does this girl think I'm interested?_

But the girl seemed so delighted to talk about this book, her eyes wide in adoration for the novel, the apparent movie as she learned from the ramblings of a young librarian, that Ino decided to feign interest.

"The movie is _excellent,_ too, if you aren't a reading type, but oh, it's about a man who moves back into his first apartment and he meets this girl Holly who he eventually falls in love with but never tells her. She makes money by giving this gangster weather reports and sending them back to his lawyer, and then falls in love with Jose, who gets her pregnant, and this makes the narrator sad because he loves her. Eventually, they decide to get married but she loses the baby and Jose doesn't know due to a bad horse ride in the park with the narrator. She gets arrested because of the weather reports, since they turned out to be drug shipment messages. Jose runs to Brazil without her and she decides to follow, even though she's still under investigation. She sends a postcard back to the narrator that she fell in love with a wealthy but married man, and then never writes to him again, leaving him to forever wonder whether she's alright and if she found happiness." – All in one breath. The librarian seemed tried, and took a sip from a water bottle to refresh her throat.

Ino was in awe. The girl ranted out the shortest summary of what seemed like a long and complicated book in under one minute.

"Um, so then why is it called Breakfast at Tiffany's?" Ino inquired trying to make conversation, "Should be called the Long and Complicated Soap Opera of a Girl who is Obviously Blind." She snorted, laughing lightly at her own joke.

The librarian gave her a soft glare over her glasses, and smiled patiently.

"Because that's a metaphor for wanting to good life. Tiffany's is a jewelry store, and the main character would eat her bagels across from the store every morning. The jewelry comes in a blue box, which means it's unaffordable for anyone who isn't of wealth. And following what she does through the whole book, it's a metaphor for the good life that she seems to be chasing. Whether she attains it or not, is questionable."

Ino feigns understanding. To be fair that actually did make sense, and the book and movie both sounded extremely good and it was easy to see why something like that would be a classic, especially among women.

"Any other good books?" She asks, and picks up a copy of Breakfast at Tiffany's. This delighted once again the librarian, who went on rambling about all their new western books.

"Oh The Good Soldier! 'Why can't people have what they want? The things were all there to content everybody; yet everybody has the wrong thing.' That's my favorite quote from that one."

Ino intrigued by the quote, decided the book might be a good read. She suddenly had a sinking feeling she'd buy about 50 books, and it would take her a lifetime to get through them.

 _No, no, just a couple months. I'll be bored and alone a lot these next few months._

"The Price of Salt – 'perhaps it was freedom itself that choked her'," The girl threw her another book. Ino caught on. Every book would now be followed by a quote.

"Birdsong – 'I know, I was there. I saw the great void in your soul, and you saw mine.' Valis – 'It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.'"

 _I'm so getting that one._ Ino caught it midair as the librarian was now apparently throwing all the good books at her.

40 minutes later, Ino was walking out with 35 books. She was really interested in some – the quotes spoke to her, and she felt like some quotes spoke to Gaara's state of mind, too. She felt it interesting to see if she could, somewhere amidst all this literature, find someone similar to Gaara to see how their inner workings worked – compare notes with the real one. In the mix were actual psychology textbooks, too. This western world may not have chakra and kekkai genkais, but they sure were smart and educated and full of secrets and wisdom about the human condition.

Like one book that Ino found herself flipping through on her way to meet the Kazekage for the second time that day – and before she realized it, she was muttering the synopsis out loud:

"After her capture, Offred's marriage was voided (because Luke had been divorced), and she was sent to the Rachel and Leah Re-education Center, called the Red Center by its inhabitants. At the center, women were indoctrinated into Gilead's ideology in preparation for becoming Handmaids. Aunt Lydia supervised the women, giving speeches extolling Gilead's beliefs that women should be subservient to men and solely concerned with bearing children. Aunt Lydia also argued that such a social order ultimately offers women more respect and safety than the old, pre-Gilead society offered them. "

"Huh." Ino muttered, now fully interested, having never faced women discrimination in her own world, Ino flipped to the first page of the novel, and once again, started to read out loud.

"We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in miniskirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light."

With her head deep into the paperback, Ino didn't notice the tall redhead in front of her, and promptly slammed herself into his chest.

"Watch where you're going, Yamanaka-san."

Ino made no attempt to automatically lift her head, dazed by what she had read, but as she did slowly, she noted the man who stood in front of her was no other than the Kazekage himself, which caused her to yelp and leap back in surprise.

"I'm sorry, Kazekage-sama, I just… I was… I didn't even realize I was here."

"You're late." His arms crossed as they usually were, he stared down at her. She couldn't place his cold eyes for a moment, trying to decide whether he was mad, or not even slightly bothered by it, just stating a fact.

"Am.. AM I?!" She glanced at her wrist watch. She then took notice of her surroundings. It was dusk. She had literally spent hours in the library, and took about another hour to make the short walk from the library to the apartment complex reserved for the high powered people, such as the Kazekage.

"Oh I'm so so so so so so so so sooooo sorry!" She began to honestly apologize, freaking out that he was going to kill her.

Not because he was a homicidal maniac, but just because she would kill someone who was about five hours late to a two hour meeting.

"I just got caught up at the library," they both shot a look at the bag of books she was carrying. Only then did she realize how heavy the bag actually was, and I was reading, and then…"

"So that's why Kakashi is always late. Huh." Was his only response before he moved past her and made his way down the street.

"Instead of lunch then, I guess we're having dinner." Without looking back at her, his sand grabbed her bag, and he made his way down the street.

"What time IS it?" she asked before running to catch up with him and fall into place.

"6:50."

"Um, would you like to have dinner with the old Konoha genin. Naruto will be there. We're paying tribute tonight to Neji, because tonight is the Rinne Festival, his favorite event of the year." Her voice held a pleading quality to it.

Gaara seemed to be unresponsive before she realized that he wasn't ignoring her but actually weighing the options.

"Sounds ideal. Neji was incredible help during the war. It would only be right that we both attend."

 _Sounds ideal? What's with him? Shouldn't he just hn. Oh wait, he's not Sasuke, and he actually isn't truly a douchebag. Just has no social skills. Someone has mentioned to me this before. Like he's the opposite of Naruto – a good, kind man who just chose to socially isolate himself while Naruto forced his presence onto every living thing he saw._

Ino smiled, though she knew he didn't even notice. Incredibly, promptly on time, they arrived to Neji's favorite restaurant and joined the table of the old 12 – now 11, crew. Temari and Kankurou were at the table, too, much to Ino's surprise.

 _Oh right, this guy doesn't go anywhere without those two. Plus Tem and Shikaaa, she wouldn't miss out on this._ Ino mentally winked at the pair trying to finally get the balls to admit to everyone they were dating.

The conversation was lively, apparently all had been early, which was a shock. She thought Naruto would be late. Either way, they still arrived on time and took the two open seats left.

"GAARA!" Naruto screeched and raised sake in Gaara's honor. Gaara faintly smiled and nodded.

"It's good to see you too, ex-friend."

"EX! WHEN DID WE BREAK UP!?" Naruto slammed his hands onto the table, enraged.

"When you quit writing and attempting to visit me."

"GAARAAA!" Naruto pouted, "Why you never visit MEEHH!?"

"Because I'm the Kazekage and can't leave the village unless is urgent. Like this time."

A small smile played on the Kazekage's face, a non-existent eyebrow arched. Not that Ino actually saw any of this.

The conversation reheated itself into a blur as the girls talked make up and boys over sake, and the boys talked fighting techniques and not much else.

The waitress came back around, and asked for their orders – everyone ordered the same thing, Neji's favorite dish – herring soba. The sand ninjas waited for the Konoha teams to order before getting the same, out of respect.

Order after order, the teams had reminisced of their old genin days, or the Chunnin exams, of the second Chuunin exams held in Suna, and of Neji and his antics in general, as well as the time Ino pulled her pony tail off to seduce Gaara during the original second Chunnin exam when they were 12.

Leave it to Temari to bring this up.

"Hey hey hey, that's not fair! I didn't know my sexual advances wouldn't work on a boy who didn't hit puberty yet."

"Did he ever?" Kiba commented between bites and a swig of sake.

Gaara shot him a glare, before using his sand to play with the food in front of him, "How was I supposed to know that I was being "seduced?" he asked.

"Gaara wouldn't know a girl hitting on him if she outright asked him for sex!" Kankurou added and the table burst into laughter.

"What about that time that Shika GAVE UP on the third exam because he was too BORED? That's the only reason Temari even won. And he hasn't even changed since! Lazier now than ever!" Ino rushed to her own defense.

Shikamaru muttered something about being troublesome, and rolled his eyes, downing another cup of sake.

"Hey hey hey!" Temari leaned over the table towards Ino, "I could've won had he not freaking given UP!"

"He had you in LOCK DOWN in his jutsu, you couldn't move anymore!" Ino roared triumphantly, getting the hang of this and letting the mood settle in nicely.

Shikamaru scoffed at Temari's comment mid Ino's sentence and this earned a hearty laugh from Ino and a smack on the head from Temari.

"Ow, why you women so troublesome!? Let's just enjoy the night."

"Sakura-chaaaaaan!" Naruto pleaded over the table.

"You all healed up from that battle with Orochimaru, poor darling passed out." Sasuke joined in on the hearty good-willing insults.

"Teme yo! I healed your ass so many goddamn times these last two years, you should be grateful!"

Sasuke seemed to smile and Naruto fell off of his chair laughing.

"Hey guys," Ten Ten piped up, but her voice was lost through in the heap of roaring arguments. Lee and Naruto entered a discussion about youth, Kiba and Akamaru and Chouji were throwing insults about food – since Chouji was eating all the meat that Akamaru was setting off to the side for his nin-dog. Temari, Ino, Sakura, Hinata were discussing who liked who back when. Sasuke was silent as per usual, throwing glances at Shikamaru and agreeing with him about how troublesome this all was. Gaara made a remark here and there, when he felt like speaking up.

Eventually, a bit of food Kiba threw landed on Sasuke who threw food back at him, and growled, but before Kiba could retort, TenTen's voice resounded through the whole restaurant.

"LISTEN TO ME!" She yelled, standing up.

Mid throwing a ball of meat at Sasuke who was prepping himself as well, Kiba froze, as the rest of the table mid-sentence. The entire restaurant was silent, having heard her. Ten Ten saw the other tables shoot glances at her, but when no one spoke, they returned to their own conversations.

"Ahem, sorry, now that I got your attention," She returned to her seat, "I have something to tell everyone."

All eyes on her instantly as people stopped what they were doing and turned to face her.

"So when the war started, there was an effort, as Sakura and Ino know, to collect the sperm of all the males going to war and save them in case they died – so that their wives or whatever could still conceive their sons if they died too soon."

Sakura and Ino exchanged glances, and mutually understood each other – they knew where this was headed, but kept an open mind.

"So, I didn't know, and was under the impression that no one we knew did that, am I right?"

The boys nodded slowly. If they DID like someone, they were IN the war, so what was the of sperm freezing – the chances of death were the same for everyone on the front line.

A week ago, I got a call from the Konoha Hospital Fertility Division. They had been left with instructions – from Neji, that if he were to die, and I were to survive, he wanted me to bear his child – and left his sperm with them. They were not to tell me this until I turned 19. Which was last week. That… That was the call I got the morning of my birthday, for all those wondering why I didn't "seem to be enjoying myself.""

Jaws dropped. Collectively, instantly. A couple people dropped their utensils; food fell out of Choujis mouth. Akamaru was whimpering. No one said a word for a few seconds as TenTen let this sink in.

"I have gone ahead and made the decision to impregnate myself with his sperm. I got news today – the egg has been fertilized and stuck – I am, officially," she took a deep breath to steady herself from crying in a restaurant, "Pregnant with Neji's child."

Hinata's eyes welded with tears, and she patted her eyes with her napkin. Ino and Sakura, guessing this was coming, still couldn't withhold tears that stained their faces slowly. Lee, too, was sobbing into his sleeve.

Ino wondered for a brief moment if this is how memories were kept alive – by being passed down as stories, nostalgic memories, heroic events, and heartbreaking novels to the generations that would supersede them. That this is what people meant when they said the Will of Fire, that someone burns deep within their very being – literally for TenTen, figuratively for their son.

Sakura broke the silence, "That child may be yours, but they're a part of us, too."

Ino added, "If you ever need anything, we'll be right there by your side through it all."

Temari smiled softly, "They'll always have a home with us too, whenever he wants to visit."

Hinata wiped tears, "Although," she swallowed hard, "My oldest is supposed to be the heir of the Hyuuga – I'll pass the flame on down to Neji's child. To free them of their cage once and for all."

At that, everyone gasped once more.

Ten Ten, over flooded by emotions as her friends took her side and supported her, burst out crying. The men were still in shock.

Dinner ended in a lighter mood, with everyone already a little tipsy around 9 PM. After the initial shocks wore down, the usual banter started up again except this time with comments about the fact that TenTen wasn't supposed to be drinking, and little signs they all missed the past week that she was pregnant.

They exited the restaurant and went their separate ways, promising to meet up at the Rinne Festival at 10:30 – the festival ran into the wee hours of the morning, and the fireworks start at midnight. Bidding goodbye at the front door of the restaurant, those heading the same way went together.

Ino found herself walking to her own apartment to get ready before she realized Gaara was following her.

"Um, won't you go back to get ready for the festival?" She asked looking up at him slowly.

"I take 10 minutes to shower, and 10 minutes to get dressed. Temari laid out my haori and hakama and gato."

"So you're following me home then?"

He nodded.

"Why?" she asked blatantly. Why did he have to ruin her mood? Why was she not allowed to have any free time?

"To make up for lost time."

Ino unlocked her front door, a dark cloud hanging over her head. She stepped inside and held the door open for him.

"Would you like something to drink?" She asked as he sat down on her couch and she headed into the kitchen for a glass of much needed water.

"Water's fine."

She brought out a glass and waddled to her bedroom and shut the door behind her. Thankfully the bathroom was attached to her bedroom, and she thanked God for choosing an appropriate apartment style and stripped out of her clothes.

The hot water worked miracles for her nerves as she titled her head back and let it just simply run over her face. She scrubbed her body clean of the day's events and took her sweet time doing it, too. Taking a razor, she went over her legs, underarms and the such to make sure that everything on her is baby smooth before slowly rinsing the conditioner out of her long hair, before turning the water off and wrapping a clean towel around herself and her hair.

Ino had learned a few techniques for her hair. She would collect enough chakra around her scalp and dispel it all at once which would forcefully blow out the water, and leave it dry. This works for short hair, so Ino had to repeat the process to quickly dry the insanely long and thick blonde hair.

First she decided she would dress. Good decision, wouldn't want make up staining the inside or Kami-forbid the outside of her kimono. She opened her large dresser, and stared at all the fancy kimono she owned: Sun yellow kimono with little red streaks and fireflies and grass – no, that's a little day time summery – red? No, and especially not the pink.

Exasperating sighs, and a bounce on her bed later she growled into her pillow and rolled over. From this distance she could see that on top of her dresser, in see through plastic, there was a midnight blue… something. Ino got up to investigate, positive she never placed anything in see-through plastic on top of her dresser.

She jumped up and down a couple of times before being able to reach it, and then in one fell swoop removed it from the top of the dresser. A loud pop resounded through the house as it fell, and Ino could feel tension from the other room.

"It's fine, I just dropped something!" she yelled through the door nervously – wouldn't want Gaara running inside with her still practically naked.

The tension physically died down, and Ino concentrated on ignoring his murderous instinct and how you can legitimately feel it, and moved to inspect the box shaped plastic covering. There was a letter on the inside.

 _Dear Ino._

 _I am your mother, and no matter how tough life gets, I will always be your mother. I will eventually be able to move on in life – and by that I mean to look upon your face without breaking out into a hissy fit of tears and soon I hope, I will become mentally stable once more. The death of your father has affected me in ways I never thought possible – I never dreamed one could feel this much pain._

 _I know you're going through much the same. I know it's weird coming home and not hearing your father's voice, and I know that the pain you feel when you see me without him is the most unnatural and terrifying feeling you've ever felt. I hope that this is the first and last time you have to suffer through this._

 _But I will get better, and I'm sure that with time, so will you._

 _I am still unable to see you, and my psychologist says that it's for the best that for now, I do not - for the both of us. However, the Rinne festival is upon Konoha once more, and I am aware of your sacrifice for our village and the peace of the five elemental nations. I am so proud of you._

 _I am so proud of you, Ino._

 _I cannot repeat that, stress that enough. You are everything and more than I ever hoped you would be, that I could ever dream you would be. You have made me ecstatic and honoured both me and your father in ways you cannot begin to understand._

 _This is small, but it's the best I can do with my mental state as is._

 _Inside is the Kimono I wore when I met your father – the kimono your grandmother wore when she met your grandfather. It has been passed down by us females for generations in the family, and I hope someday I get to see your daughter wear it._

 _I am not hinting that you should meet the love of your life tonight, I just think you should have it. This is part of me, and I want it to be part of you._

 _I love you, Ino._

 _Have fun tonight._

Ino folded the letter nicely and wiped tears. Good thing she didn't have any make up on, she giggled at the thought.

Her mother really loved her.

She took the kimono out of its plastic covering and it was gorgeous. Old fashioned kimono with massive sleeves, a midnight blue, mixed with dark purples and black, covered generously in stars, and white apple blossoms, streaked with yellow as if fire was burning somewhere below the kimono. Well she wasn't going out to meet the love of her life, but TenTen was pregnant and this was a big night for them all. She would have more chances to wear it, she was sure.

She picked it up and carefully put it on as to not harm the material in any way.

She looked at herself in the mirror and her hair was down still, cascading down past her butt down to her calves, part of her, her long usual bangs framing her face. The moon outside cast a soft white glow on her skin which caused her to stop breathless, staring at herself.

Her father's eyes – pools of cerulean and azure twinkled. She, for the umpteenth time that night, caught herself wiping tears from her eyes.

The rest of her face was distinctly her mother's – soft features and high cheekbones, and her eyes were as big as her mother's.

 _Is this what she looked like that night?_

Ino snapped into reality after a moment and went to finish her make up. Light powder to protect her face from glowing, with a light soft pink blush on her cheeks. For makeup she drew out cat eyes with a gel eyeliner and a tinge of mascara to make them stand out. Staring at her make up box, she realized she couldn't see the rest of her makeup and realized she forgot to turn the light on this whole time. The vanity had its own light, and with the flick of a switch the vanity started giving off a warm orange yellow glow. Her eyes fell on a midnight blue eyeshadow set, and decided to play around just a little with them. White lined the inside of her eye while the midnight blue, lightly set on the outsides of her eyes gave them a shadowy, mysterious shape. The makeup sparkled a little, matching the glow of her dress.

She got up from the vanity, put on her geisha style shoes, and stared at the full length mirror. Maybe her hair looked better down, the way her mother always wore it.

Deciding she was ready, and grabbing her purse off the bed, Ino opened the door, and exited her bedroom slowly.

Gaara raised an eyebrow when he saw her and promptly vanished in a puff of sand.

Slowly, pulled her sleeve up, and then, when absolutely positive she could not harm her dress or appearance, smashed her fist into the wall, breaking a hole through it.

" _THAT FUCKING ASSHOLE!"_ her voice thundered. She grabbed the closest object to her and smashed it into the place where he vanished.

Growling, Ino slowly waddled, then in a fit of anger, took off her shoes, hitched up her skirt, and like a hurricane, left her house.

 _What the living fuck. So you fucking stalk me you wait like fucking an hour for me to get dressed and then like what the fuck vanished when I came out – he could've fucking been home and been like LEAVING ME ALONE but fuck no. That dickhead, what the hell was the point of this, what was he spying on what the fuck this makes no sense this makes no fucking ughjfsdfkdfh._

Before she knew it, she was at the gates and in the crowd she could spot out the whole crew. Hinata was shyly standing next to Naruto who was waving his arms around like a doofus explaining something to her, Temari and Shikamaru were yelling at Kankurou and Chouji about something, though Chouji was laughing at the way which Kankurou was mocking his sister. Sakura was quietly standing next to Sasuke who felt completely unnatural in such a setting, but was trying his hardest, as was Sakura to not laugh. Kiba and the rest of them were running circles, joking, pouring drinks into each other's mouths and mixing their voices in with the rest of the slowly buzzing festival entrance.

Ino put her shoes back on and started to walk slowly towards them, trying to pretend that nothing happened earlier. To be fair, nothing DID happen. Gaara was just a dick, and that was no reason for her to ruin her and everyone else's nights.

She was wearing a family kimono, and she was with her second family, enjoying a night out. That fucking Kazekage could show up or she couldn't and she wouldn't give a rats ass.

She got herself caught in resealing Shukaku, and "she had to get to know him" or whatever else excuse she came up with on the spot at the time to get herself OUT of it, and now, she wasn't so sure she liked what she saw.

He was a complete dick, but then again – deep breath.

Just three months. And it would be over.

Sakura saw her first, and waved enthusiastically. She was wearing a light green blue kimono with Sakura trees all over it, her short pink hair straightened out. The group noticed Sakura's waving and quit their bantering to yell their hellos.

Ino approached the group and smiled shyly.

"Hey guys!"

Temari wrapped her arm around Ino's shoulder and Ino yelped, surprised at how drunk the girl was already. Temari looked up at her with puppy eyes and cooed, placing her whole weight onto Ino, "Anddd where is mah bruthurrr!?"

Ino removed her arm and stepped away, "I don't know."

Temari looked like she sobered up for a second, "But he went with yuuu!"

"Yeah but then he saw me in this kimono and just .. vanished." Ino explained in a calm and collected manner, as if she were trying to tell a four year old why they couldn't have candy before lunch, and the child was throwing a hissy fit. She was also trying to contain anger.

"Hmm, not like him is it, Kankuuuu?" The girl spun drunkenly on one heel and waved her finger at the eldest brother.

"Nopeeee." Matter-of-fact.

Ino rolled her eyes and turned to the rest of the group, "Are we going?" She smiled brightly.

"We can't leave without Gaara, Ino-chan!" Naruto protested, and Hinata sort of nodded in agreement.

Sasuke shrugged and started moving forward, with Sakura at his heels. Apparently in the meantime, Sakura has become excellent at decoding his thoughts telepathically because she spun and jogging backwards yelled at the group, "Half of us can go, and some of us can stay behind to wait for him, and we'll all catch up later!"

The group nodded and Naruto and Hinata followed Sasuke and Sakura, as did most everyone else. Temari and Kankurou stayed behind with Ten Ten, who was exhausted from trying to keep Lee from killing people with his drunken fist.

Ino, after a moment of debate, followed the loud Chouji and the giggling girls, Akamaru's bark louder than the festival. She took a second in her own brain to enjoy this moment. It was dark, the lights were dim but heavenly pools that lit up Konoha like it was a firework of its own, and she saw her friends, now all grown up, swooning around drunkenly, talking and punching each other, and finally, her mood restored, she started after them.

"Aren't you going to wait for him, too?" Temari's voice was nowhere near drunk now, but rather incredibly accusing.

"Why should I? I'm here to reseal him, not to baby sit him." Ino nervously giggled and ran off before the girl could get another word in.

Temari thought to yell after the blonde, but instead simply whispered, "Because how do you get to know someone if you keep trying to avoid them?"

Kankurou nodded and smiled at that, and moved to sit by TenTen on a bench.

"But then again," Kankurou crossed his legs, "You could say the same thing to him."

"Why did he run away?" Temari stopped staring after the group and turned to the two on the bench.

Kankurou's smile just grew a tad bit, and he shrugged.

"Who knows?"

\- XX- XXX End Chapter 2 XXX – XX -

A/N: Guys reviews mean a lot. Tell me if you like this story, please please please review. Story followers and author followers are great, but without your feedback I can't edit, or change or do anything that you guys may wanna see in this story, so reviews really help a lot.

Also I'm sorry it took this long – this summer has been hectic.


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